US drone attacks undermine support for war

PAKISTAN: Pakistan warned US senators Thursday that American drone attacks against militants on its territory undermined “the national consesus” that supported the war against militancy.

President Asif Ali Zardari made the warning to a US delegation led by former US presidential candidate and Republican Senator John McCain one day after US missile attacks killed at least 13 militants on the Afghan border.

McCain said Thursday in Kabul, the capital of neighbouring Afghanistan, that the use of such drone strikes against suspected Islamist militants in Pakistan was an effective part of US strategy and should continue.

“The drone strikes are part of an overall set of tactics which make up the strategy for victory and they have been very effective,” McCain told reporters during a brief trip to Afghanistan.

But a statement issued late Thursday by the Pakistani government said Zardari had pointed out to the US delegation “that drone attacks on Pakistani territory undermined the national consensus” supporting the war on militancy.

“The president underlined the need for the strategic long-term partnership between Pakistan and the United States to be based on mutual interest, respect and mutual trust,” it added.

Suspected US drone strikes have increasingly targeted North Waziristan, a stronghold for Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the Haqqani network, from where the militants launch attacks on 113,000 US and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan.

“(Zardari) urged the American delegation to persuade the US policy makers to give drone technology to Pakistan so that the militants could be targeted by Pakistan’s national security forces themselves rather than by foreign troops, which raised questions of sovereignty,” the release said.

It added that Zadari had told the delegation that “the economic cost of the war against terror amounting to 35 billion US dollars for the last eight years has almost paralyzed Pakistan’s economy.”

Washington has put Pakistan at the heart of a strategy for turning around the eight-year war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, hinging success on dismantling militant sanctuaries along the porous border.

Pakistan is under increasing pressure to tackle militants who use its soil to launch attacks in Afghanistan and American officials have said that the highly secretive drone programme has eliminated some top fighters. ISLAMABAD, Friday, AFP